Sinn Fein ‘were very welcome’ at NI Protocol meeting, says Foreign Secretary as Mary Lou McDonald slams ‘Tory petulance’

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1. The Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, has denied excluding Sinn Féin from an all-party meeting about the Northern Ireland Protocol in Belfast on Wednesday.

   The party withdrew from the talks, which were held to discuss the protocol negotiations, and accused the Government of “excluding” them by not allowing their leader Mary Lou McDonald to attend.

   Sinn Fein said they were informed of the details “in an extraordinary turn of events last night” and said they would therefore not be attending the discussions.

   Following the meeting, which also involved Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris, Mr Cleverly said: “Sinn Fein were very welcome.

   “My meeting here this morning was to meet with the elected representatives of the people of Northern Ireland.

   “I will of course be going to Ireland in the near future and I’ll be meeting Irish politicians but I very much wanted to hear from the representatives of Northern Ireland,” he added.

   “Michelle O’Neill was invited, as was her deputy. They chose not to come but it was a very useful meeting and I did get to hear voices that had concerns, serious concerns, about the protocol, the impact it is having on people and businesses in Northern Ireland.”

   Ms McDonald is Sinn Fein’s overall party president, but it is understood that she was not invited as she is the leader of the opposition in the Dáil (lower house of Irish Parliament) and that the UK government considers it against protocol for Mr Cleverly to meet her before he meets the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister).

   The British government also pointed out that there had been meetings with Northern Ireland political parties in the past where Ms McDonald had not attended, including when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Belfast in December.

   Ms McDonald spoke to the media in Belfast while the talks were taking place nearby.

   She said: “We are in a very important time when progress needs to be made on the issue of the protocol, on getting the executive back up and running, getting the Assembly into action and ensuring people have government. We had hoped to make progress on those issues at today’s leaders’ meeting.

   “I travelled for that meeting because I believe it is an important meeting and, bizarrely and in an unprecedented way, the British Government chose to seek to exclude the leader of Sinn Fein from a leaders’ meeting.

   “The whole thing is absolutely bizarre and unacceptable. We need politics which is civil, which is based on respect, which recognises the democratic mandate and the responsibility of every party, including Sinn Fein.”

   Ms McDonald added: “We had a chance this morning to mark progress, to exchange views, to be constructive, to work together, to listen to each other. But rather than having that kind of meeting, a kind of British Tory petulance has emerged. I think that is a terrible shame.”

   Former First Minister Dame Arlene Foster took to social media to brand Sinn Fein as “experts at boycotts” following their withdrawal from the talks on Wednesday.

   In a tweet, she referenced the last time NI’s Executive collapsed in 2017 after the late Sinn Fein deputy first minister Martin McGuinness resigned amid a row about the botched RHI green energy scheme.

   The ex-DUP leader added: “All that hot air about the DUP boycotting the Executive looks a *wee* bit hypocritical when you boycott the talks with the Government to solve issues and bring the Executive back. But then SF are experts at boycotts (Westminster, NI Exec 2017-2020…..)”

   The SDLP also did not attend the meeting as Sinn Fein were not involved.

   Speaking to BBC News NI at the Northern Ireland Office headquarters, the SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole said it was “absolutely daft” and “surreal” to exclude Ms McDonald from the event, adding that his party could not “in good faith” attend the discussions as they should be about “maximum inclusion”.

   In attendance were the DUP’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Gordon Lyons, Alliance’s Andrew Muir and Paula Bradshaw, and Doug Beattie and Robin Swann of the UUP.

   Providing an update on talks between the UK Government and the European Union, the Foreign Secretary reflected on the agreement reached earlier this week regarding the EU’s access to UK IT systems that provide live information about what goods are moving across from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

   Commenting after the meeting, Mr Heaton-Harris said: “In conversations with NI political leaders today, I stressed that while an agreement on the Protocol is incredibly important, it remains my view that the devolved institutions must return as soon as possible.

   “This is particularly crucial in the face of current budgetary challenges and economic pressures. The people of Northern Ireland are best when governed by their locally elected representatives, who should deliver public services at the level the public need and deserve.”

   NI parties are also set to meet with Irish premier Leo Varadkar and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday.

   There is just over a week to the deadline to restore the executive on January 19.

   “There is serious work to be done in the days and weeks ahead. This is an important week and we must pull out all the stops to get the Executive back up and running and working together for all our people.

   “We look forward to engaging with the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the British Labour leader Keir Starmer tomorrow.”

   A UK Government spokesperson said: “This meeting is for Northern Ireland politicians to talk through issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol with SOSNI and the UK Foreign Secretary.

   “The leader of Sinn Fein in the assembly was invited and remains invited. Her attendance is a matter for Sinn Fein but she was not excluded.”

   Speaking following roundtable talks in Belfast, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said: “It was a shame that SDLP and Sinn Fein were not there. It is good that we all come together and we all discuss problems.

   “It did come up in the meeting. It all boils down to basic diplomatic norms.

   “The Foreign Secretary has not met the Taoiseach (Mr Varadkar) so he could hardly meet the leader of the opposition of a party in Ireland before he meets the Taoiseach.”

   Mr Beattie said during the meeting he pushed for more input from local politicians over the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiations.

   He said: “We need to be in a position that if they are going to agree something, we have the ability to say that is not going to work.

   “That is a red flag and I made that point quite strongly to the Foreign Secretary.

   “He did say there will be no running commentary in regards to the protocol, there will be no timeline set.”

2. English politicians flying over the Irish Sea to Ireland to exclude Irish politicians from discussing Ireland.

   Peak colonialism.

3. Imagine if the Irish Govt had arranged a meeting involving all parties, told Sunak he wasn’t invited, but he could send along one of his MPs?

   You might think that it kicking off again in Northern Ireland would be a good distraction for this government.

4. Sinn Fein were very welcome at the NI Protocol meeting, just like the rest of us were very welcome at the Sinn Fein meeting.